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Hi, all! I've been working on my Boba duds for a couple of weeks now. Starting as a total Mandalorian Neophyte, I've been soaking up all the knowledge I could for about a month now. I've just about finished a set of Sintra armor that I may post photos of soon -- before moving on to a set of FPv3 -- which is absolutely amazing!

But I thought by way of thanking all the members whose incredibly detailed tutorials, stencils, tips, and genial sense of community have inspired me, I 'd like to share part of my own work in progress: my SgtFang Mystery Helmet v1.

If I hadn't been soooo anxious to start, I might have snapped a few earlier photos of my filling or sanding or priming or masking. But just imagine all that happening at some point in the not too distant past and we'll go from there....

I decided to use a mixture of layered and topical approaches -- using mostly the AFFO$ rattle can list (thanks for that post!!). Layering with masking fluid turned out so well for my armor, that I wanted to at least use that for some part of the helmet. However, I lack the herculean patience of some of the better painters on these boards, so I think -- for the most part, I'm going to limit the layers to the silver base and maybe one other color on the back panels.

Here's the first photo - with all but the dome masked to cover the Rustoleum aluminum base layer, and my first coat of Spruce Green.

Another coat or two, several hours to dry, and we move inside to the kitchen to better light the reveal.... Here's the masking tape removed; the masking fluid is still on:

Masking fluid is removed....TADA!

I used a combination of stencils and freehand, just trying to get as close as I could to the shape of the silver, which I can touch up later with more green or silver, as needed. Here are a few more shots:

Left side to show more of dent....

And the right side to show the cheek and cat scratch...

Tomorrow I hope to start masking the silver of the mandibles with masking fluid and then hit those with some Krylon "Claret Wine" -- looks pretty close to the screen used colors. And I'm not necessarily striving for perfection this first time around.

Quick update: Got the mandibles done today. I tried to do masking fluid for all the silver, but it got too frustrating, so I did some large patches on the right side and will do all the damage and peeling for the mandibles topically, for the most part:

As far as colors go, I tried the Rustoleum Burgundy Satin first -- and not surprisingly it looked too pink. So I tried "Claret Wine" and it didn't look much better. On a whim, I had bought Rustoleum Painters Choice "Colonial Red". I was certain it would be too much like a fire engine. But, perhaps because it was over the Claret or maybe just because it was a good color to begin with, it turned out pretty nice! I'll let you guys be the judges....

So, this Colonial Red might be worth adding to the list, AFFO$ - -for those without a Lowe's nearby.

Got to work on left mandible and the cat scratch this weekend. Still need to touch up, but the rough form has taken shape. All done by hand with no additional stenciling -- which is tougher than I thought! Ended up redoing a bit because I had not stretched it out properly across the lower left "eye". And my 0000 steel wool took off a little too much paint on the grey above the turn signals.

How do you pros do this??? Oy vey!

More to come. Got my BKBT stalk today, so I may start playing with that soon....

Made a little more progress tonight. Got my BKBT stalk and decided to try and fit magnets to the earpiece. Used my Forstner bit and it was exactly the right size for the magnets. Add a little JBWeld, and it worked like a charm! That thing it going nowhere!

Then I did a little more touching up on the left mandible, cat scratch and brow line and started on the right mandible. About 65-75% done there....

Need to finish the front, hit it with the wire wool and Dulcoat, then I can move on to the right cheek, THE DENT and rest of the dome. Don't even want to think about the back yet.

Today I got both ears on with tee-nuts and JB Weld. Pretty happy with how they came out. Got my decals applied to ears and the kill stripes done, too. Had to cut into pieces to make them conform to the curve of the dome, though. How do you guys weather these to make them look a little less...decal-y?

Here are photos. Visor is just taped in and probably shoulda been hit with some Windex before the pix.

Oh, ****! I put the ears and kill stripes on the wrong sides!!!

Still got the rest of the left cheek and left side to finish...and then the daunting task that is the back. Eeek....

I've also been really annoyed with the silver I used topically. All my pre-masked layered silver looks awesome, but I didn't complete the mandibles that way. I used a silver acrylic from a craft store because I couldn't find Floquil or Polyscale bottles locally. Well, laziness and rushing do not pay and I got "lumpy" silver spots. Now I've been sanding a lot of it down and going back over areas with Testors Aluminum. It's looking a bit better.

Also a little worried that the visor is not quite big enough to mount with tee nuts and screws. I bought a couple of green welding masks from RJ Safety in case I need to cut a new one.

I think you're looking good! It's daunting painting an ESB/SE helmet. I originally had stickers on for the kill stripes but after I weathered it some I removed them and just filled in their outlines with some paint I found that looked good. It really, really improves the look of the ESB helmet if you do that.

No matter what you do, you're heading in the right direction right now. Good luck on the rest of your suit!

My final updates. Now that I have my GORGEOUS new FPH painted by Superjedi, this will be making its way to a new home soon (hope you enjoy it, Oxymoo!!!). But by way of farewell, some final pics...

This was all rattlecans and handpainted, so I'd be interested to see what I could do in the future with my airbrush and the RS colors. But for now, I am so tired of painting in little details that I think I'll table any interest in that for a year or so....

I'm a noob here on the forums, and man...Everyone's stuff looks so amazing! I'm not financially able to start my own bucket, but from what I've seen I'm definitely going to be getting a SgtFang or Bobamaker.
I just wouldn't know where to start!
The bucket looks fantastic by the way! Great detail...awesome job!